I did not set out to experiment; it happened out of sheer laziness. I bought some nice, fresh, bone-in fish at the market and with my bag of scaled, cleaned fish I headed home not sure how I was going to cook them. Of course, a curry came to mind, but I decided against that and opted to fry the fish instead. However, by the time I had finished doing chores and cooking a few other dishes to consume in the upcoming week, I was tired. Too tired to dust the seasoned fish with flour and rest it few minutes before shallow frying. I decided to drizzle a little oil in a pan and “fry” the fish just so. The results convinced me that is now my new way to “fry” bone-in, skin-on fish.
While the technique may not be new and many people know about pan-searing, here in the Caribbean, when we fry fish, it is always breaded or dusted with some type of powdered/floured starch; shallow fried or deep fried. The breading/dusting acts as a way to protect the fish and create a crisp outer texture. Shallow frying involves at least 2 inches of oil in a frying pan and deep frying, well, that is self-explanatory. Therefore, when I got the results I did, with simply coating the bottom of a pan with oil, as if pan-searing, I knew I had to share it with you. Not only did the fish brown nicely as if fried in the traditional way, but the skin crust would make converts of all those who do not like or eat fish skin. The flesh of the fish was tender and not overcooked.